Sunday, August 22, 2010

This is a card that fits into a double challenge... It fits the color challenge put out by Just Add Ink, AND it goes with Pal's Paper Arts newest challenge. They have a new challenge that is inspired by a picture, but it has a twist. You are supposed to do two cards; the cards are virtually the same, but one is a "day" card, good, but less glamour and glitz. It's dressed down. The next one is a "night" card, more glamorous, more layers, something more dressed up.

The color challenge asks us to use Real Red, Chocolate Chip, and Crumb Cake.

So this card above is my "day" card. It is cute, simple, and sweet. I used Pocket Silhouettes and Upsy Daisy on both cards. Nothing to be ashamed of.

The card to the right here is my night card. It has a bit more detail, more to look at. Now, I am a fan of a simple card, but I do love this card. I punched the edge of the red, used red ink on the single flower in the center, red and kraft colored eyelets, and an extra edge of brown along the bottom.

If you ask me, I like this one much better... don't get me wrong... I love a simple card (for lots of reasons), but I do really like the extra detail on this baby...

Thanks for looking...

NOTE TO JONAH:I have to go back to work tomorrow.... I'm kinda freakin' out ova herea....

Saturday, August 21, 2010

This is my take on the color challenge that was posted by Connie and Mary on Create with Connie and Mary this week.

The color challenge was to use Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi, and basic black (inspired by a fabric). I used those colors with this cute little.... ah... hedgehog? Porcupine? Whatever it is... it's cute, and it's from the Fun Fast Notes set. There is also a black ribbon. I used the Pacific Point marker to color the word "thanks" and Wild Wasabi to color in "for sharing with me." (The whole message is "thanks for sharing you with me." However, I have been so blessed recently with some of my generous friends so I wanted to thank them for sharing their stuff with me. Therefore this card is serving multiple purposes. I did case this card from a Stampin' Success magazine. I did, of course, make many changes, but I want to give credit where it is deserved.

I am also thankful for all the good luck and good things have been happening in my card making "career" lately, and I won my first Blog Candy from Connie and Mary! I was so excited to see that! Have you ever won blog candy? Tell me about it...

This week on Stamping 411, there is another sketch challenge. You can see that here.

This is what I came up with. I was eyeing this set (The More the Merrier) because of the snowmen. They are so cute (but the whole story is that I am getting ready to go back to school for the year, and I worked all summer, my grandfather's health is rapidly declining, and I found myself wishing for a snow day), and if I want to send out holiday cards this year, I should start thinking now about what I want to make. To add to that, I am going to the Baltimore convention and want to make some swaps that won't take me a ton of time. This card is NOT that swap card. It does take a lot of time.

I started this card with the ribbon. I have had it for-ev-er. I do really like it, and I thought it went really well with the snowmen theme.

The colors that I used were Marina Mist for the base, the larger circle is Soft Sky (a former In color that I bought lots of because I love it), and the smaller circle is Baja Breeze. I embossed the big circle with a snowflake embossing folder I have, and then I inked up the snowflakes with the white craft pad. I used a dark blue sparkly paper I got from the clearance rack at a paper store, and stamped the snowmen on Whisper White. Then I colored their accessories in using the same blues. Finally, I used the snowflakes from Christmas Punch set, and used the Boho Blossoms punch to punch out a snowflake... Oh, and I forgot to mention that I embossed the snowflakes with this embossing powder (that I also got on clearance at a local stamping store that was shutting down). It's called Aegean Sea; it's silver and blue... very prettyful. The sentiment is stamped in back on Soft Sky, punched out with the word window, layered on a Baja Breeze modern label punch, and that is popped up.

That's about it...I hope you like it...

Thanks for looking....

NOTE TO JONAH:Really, what does it tell you that I have not gone back to school yet and already need a snow day?

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

One of the operators wrote on that site that the great thing about the challenge is that it takes one of the decisions out of the card making process, and what a great point she made. I felt like I would go into the studio to do some work and then flounder for a while with too many choices. The challenge helps give you a starting point, and I have been so much more productive since I started doing them. Thanks to all you challenge designers out there!!!

This one started with the sketch from Stamping 411 and the desire to use this set I got for free from Stampin' Up. This is what I came up with... two sightly different cards.

They both use Elegant Eggplant as a base with a layer of Perfect Plum and a layer of Pale Plum (sadly, retired...). They both also use a great ribbon my friend Susan gave (thanks again, Susan! Obviously, your gift has been greatly appreciated!) Both cards have the hydrangea from the Because I Care hostess set stamped in Elegant Eggplant. The card above has the stem in Certainly Celery. The card to the right has the stem in Old Olive.

Each has a different sentiment from the set stamped in eggplant on the Pale Plum, punched out with the medium oval and layered on a scalloped oval of the Perfect Plum and popped up. Each also had the single flower (also from the same set) popped up on the sentiment.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I used Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, and River Rock and the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set to create these two cards. I guess I have to pick just one to enter the challenge, right? I don't know which one to pick!!!

This idea came to me while I was working on my last set of cards (originally, I was going to use a different set to do this challenge). I loved the masking with this set and how it looked.

I started with a suede base, added a layer of vanilla and ripped the edge. Then I added the layer of river rock and ripped that edge, too. I started with a basic brown ink (I don't have a Soft Suede ink pad... YET) rose in the corner- stamped off once on my scrap paper to lighten the color a bit. On one card, I added the two other flowers in River Rock. It's subtle, and I like it, but on the second card I decided to add them in the brown, but I did forget to stamp them off once so they are a bit darker. A happy mistake because I do like the different shades.

I love the sentiment on this set, and I punched it out with the large oval and sponged the edges. One is sponged in river rock, the other in the brown.

On one, I used brown grograin ribbon (another treat from the big bag 0' ribbon from my friend, Susan) and on the other, I used a brown binder clip with a piece or river rock ribbon.

This is another case from a Stampin' Success magazine. I sometimes circle or write on the pages... just notes to myself. I was really drawn to this set (Fifth Avenue Floral), but tonight was the first time I really put ink on it. I have used one of the flowers, but never the rose or the lily. Can't say that now. In fact, this set got quite the workout tonight.

This idea was in the magazine last year I think. I did edit it quite a bit, but the main idea of colors really started with me pulling a ribbon from the big bag of ribbon my good friend Susan gave me. I liked the thick green ribbon with polka dots on it. (Not even used in this card...but that is where the inspiration came from....) The ribbon was very close to Wild Wasabi. I used Baja Breeze on top of a Sahara Sand base. I embossed each Baja piece with different patters. This is a leaf that I felt went well with the flowers. The polka dot embossing ties in with the dots on the ribbon.

The flowers are on a piece of Very Vanilla card stock that is layered on top of a piece of Wild Wasabi. The flowers are in Wild Wasabi and Baja Breeze. The sentiment is in black. I also used the masking technique. I stamped the rose first in the corner of my vanilla CS. Then I stamped the rose again on a scrap piece of paper and trimmed it out. I placed the scrap rose on top of the stamped rose and then stamped the other two flowers, overlapping onto the scrap paper. I love the look and the technique, and this set really lends itself to this technique.

The size of the squares is a little different on each card. One is a quarter of an inch bigger. I love making two cards and changing things up a bit on each (I think I mentioned that before...)

Saturday, August 14, 2010

I really loved the I {Heart} Hearts set when I first saw it. I just had to have it. I got it. It sat there. And sat there. And sat there. I finally opened it and put the stickers on the back of the stamps when I worked on this challenge.

This is a modification of the other card I did for this challenge. I started with a Very Vanilla base. Then I used a 3/4" strip of the Not Quite Navy and a small strip of the Cherry Cobbler. I would guess about an 1/8 of an inch is showing. Then I stamped the dotted heart outline in Old Olive in the middle. For the rest of the hearts, I stamped them in either Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Cherry Cobbler, or Daffodil Delight on Very Vanilla scraps and cut them out. I popped up the smallest hearts (one of each color!), the olive wood-grained heart, and the daffodil dotted heart. The sentiment in the middle is from the Whimsical Words set.

After I was done, I thought, "well, I could have embossed the navy strips on the top and the bottom," but they were attached, and I was happy with my card. That's really what counts, right?

I cased this card from the Stampin' Success monthly magazine for demonstrators. I used their idea to complete the Stampin' Royalty's color challenge this week. The challenge is to use Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Cherry Cobbler, and Daffodil Delight. I used a Whisper White base and the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set to stamp hearts in each of the challenge colors. Then I used the Heard from the Heart set for the sentiment. I used the masking technique to get each part of the message in different places on the card (the longer message is on a strip of Daffodil Delight with an Old Olive boarder along the bottom). I also popped up the olive, navy, and small daffodil hearts on the card.

Friday, August 13, 2010

If you go down one post, you can read all about the products used to make this one. I posted two cards to one post and the linking tool for the challenge I am participating in won't take two posts from the same page.... go figure...

This week, Create with Connie and Mary have this back to school challenge... crazy! Because I AM a teacher and am trying to mentally get ready to back to school.

To be fair, I have worked full time all summer doing data entry for my county's infants and toddlers (a shout out to all you over there who said you were reading my blog!) So I am not really ready to go back yet because of working all summer, AND I just took a week long course for the IB programme I am working with this year. That course was my inspiration for this cute card...

One of many big ideas from the class is the type of questions you ask students. They should be type 3 questions, questions with more than one right answer, questions that require students to really think critically, not just repeat facts.

So I was thinking that I wanted to come up with a totally new idea for this challenge. I pulled some sets to help inspire me. I was thinking of using that punch that makes the paper look like it's from a spiral notebook and drawing in the lines in real red and bashful blue to make it look like notebook paper the my students use. I also have a good friend who I work with that has a birthday right as we start school, so I wanted to make it a birthday card, AND that is when the IB class information combined with my teacher experience to produce this card. Let me tell you what I am thinking...

It is a bulletin board (remember those wavy boarder pieces teachers put up all around their bulletin boards? The scallop punch does a VERY good imitation of that!). Next, I used part of the phrase from the It's Your Birthday set. It is the question or prompt students need to answer, "Every year you grow..." It's the open ended question that I want my students to answer. Then the "student" creatively answered it with a drawing and the comment "...a little wiser" from the It's The Thought set. The paper is posted on the bulletin board, displaying the student's work (the brads are the push pins!) And, of course, the paper got a goal star for that answer. I don't think it shows up in the picture, but the owl's eyes have a thick coat of crystal effects. The message is perfect for my friend's birthday, too!

It's kind of funny to me that so much of the class inspired this card. And, yes, I am sending my instructor the link to this post of my blog! :)

My second card for this challenge is a modified take on a card that I made a few years ago (but it is still very cute!)

This card uses a basic black card base. Then in white ink I stamped A, B, and C from Whimsical Alphabet Upper and "thank you" from Wonderful Words.

Then I use the tab punch to punch out two Very Vanilla "apple cores." I draw in the center and seeds in Chocolate Chip, and I used the rounded edge of the punch to punch out the edge for the skins of the apples. (Punch once into the edge of the paper with just the rounded part of the tab punch. Then punch again, clipping off just the edge piece to make the skin on the apple.)

Next I punched a small strip of Chocolate Chip the same way described above to make a stem for each apple, and I used a circle of Old Olive to make a leaf for one apple.

Because of the black card stock, I like to use a white gel pen on the inside of the card. It makes it look more like a chalk board, but this time, I put a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of printer paper inside, and I stamped the apple from the Tart and Tangy stamp set.

Inside each of these little books is a junior sized note pad, just perfect for making lists... grocery lists, list of things to do, etc., AND the inside is decorated, too. There are two more types of designer series paper inside! You can choose which color you'd like to make, OR, if you love them as much as I do, you can make more than one. For each additional one there will be an additional $5.oo charge.

Our next gift is a book marker. It is not your standard book mark. This one is a square one that goes over the corner of your page and holds your place... too cute!

This one is one where you can again choose which color you'd like to make. I made them in two different sizes to see which one I liked best, and in making them, I learned some helpful hints to give to you when you make yours (you know, so that your flower is in the middle of the marker!)

I need to give you a heads up that I only have enough of the Not Quite Navy designer paper to make three of those so if you are going to come and you just LOVE that one, RSVP right away to reserve your paper. They are both just so cute, but the dark blue is limited...

The final gift we will be making is a darling little gift card holder. I am not including a picture of that one (because I haven't made it yet!), but I am planning to use the designer series paper that I love, Cottage Wall (Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, and Whisper White). You will have the option of making it be a birthday card/gift card holder or any other gift card giving occasion. The card is decorated on both the inside and the outside and has a little belly band that goes around it to close it. I promise you that you are going to love it.

So... RSVP with me today! You have a choice of Friday, August 20th or Saturday August 21st. You can come at the time that works best for you. Please tell me when you RSVP what day your are coming and give me an approximate time. Also, tell me which color list you want to make (green book with pink designer paper or pink book with green designer paper) and which book mark you'd like to make (dark or light blue).

The total cost is $20.00, but if you'd like to make more of anything, please just let me know and I will be happy to accommodate your needs.

I made this name frame for my sweet friend, Ines. She lives in a group home in Mexico, a home that my church helps to support. I went two years in a row with my church to the home to help work there (paint, light construction, etc.), but for the past two years, I have not been able to go. I really bonded with Ines when I was there, and I really feel like I am letting her down by not going so I am trying to make it up to her in part by offering her this name frame. I LOVE doing name frames and have made them for lots of people and even sold some. They are fun. This picture does not really do this one justice. I am not really crazy about the picture, but in real life, it is very cute. The letters of her name pop off the circles and the little flowers pop up, too. They match the flowers in the ribbon, and all of the turquoise matches the frame. I hope she likes it...

I am also trying to get stuff ready to enter in the fair. I wanted to put in a few framed pieces. I made these two pieces using the Inspired by Nature stamp set. I think they are sweet pieces to pair together on a small wall or a small room.

On both the pieces I used a base of Old Olive, and in both pieces I stamped the words right on the matting of the frames. It was a brave, bold step because one little smudge or mistake and the matting was history, but I really like how it turned out. The flowers have a layer of Early Espresso behind them. I used Old Olive, Orchid Opulence, and Early Espresso to color in the stamp. I stamped the words for the flower in Early Espresso, too.

The grass picture has a layer of Certainly Celery behind it, and I stamped the sentiment in Old Olive. In both pictures, I popped up the stamped image and the layer behind it.

I am very happy with how they both turned out. We'll see what the fair folks think...

Finally, I made this little frame as a gift for my mom. Normally I give her a collection of cards, but as my husband pointed out, she just gives those away. This is something she can keep and look at again and again.

I found this sentiment stamp at the scrapbooking show I went to, and I really love the sentiment. I don't know; maybe I was getting tired, but when I read it, I got a little misty eyed. I think it is a great saying.

I started with the Halloween colors suggested in the new catalog: Cajun Craze, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, and Basic Black. I roughed up the edges of the black strip of paper across the bottom of the card. I used three sets to stamp this one; the circles are from Seeing Spots and Think Happy Thoughts (I have no idea if they are retired or not...). I used the sentiment from Holiday Best. I used my markers to color the stamp and then stamped on whisper white. I sponged the edges in Rich Razzleberry to bring that color into the tag (I don't have the Razzleberry marker yet {gasp... there is something stampin' up that I don't have}).

I punched my message with the large oval. I punched two more in black and extended the oval out on both sides. I finished the message off with a loop of ribbon. I couldn't decided which color to use, razzleberry or olive. Since I made two cards, I did one of each. By the time I was putting the olive ribbon on, I thought, "This looks like the stump at the top of the pumpkin, and my extended oval message looks like a pumpkin!" So I put that message in the middle. It doesn't exactly follow the sketch for Stamping 411 that way, but I like it...

This was a fun one to play with. I also ended up coloring in the pumpkin from the "Trick or Treat" stamp and stamping it again, cutting it out, and then popping it up. Here's a close up of that. It's a little something extra, I think. I like it!

For Stampin' Royalty, the challenge was to make your own DSP. I used Park Avenue Patterns to create a very simple background for this card. It's so funny. When I first saw Park Ave Patterns, I just had to have it. I loved it! I thought it was so cute, and I would use it for so much. I have hardly ever used it at all! But when I saw Stampin' Royalty's challenge, I knew it would be perfect. It is subtle yet sweet background. I used Pretty In Pink ink on whisper white and the stamp-A-ma-jig is a MUST for this one.

The rest of the card follows the sketch on Stamping 411's challenge. Very simple, very sweet.

The paper is pink pirouette, a layer of pretty in pink is under the whisper white panel. The strip of green across the bottom is certainly celery. The ink on the tag is wild wasabi, and the sweet pea (from Event Full) is colored in with the wild wasabi and certainly celery markers. I also used the blush blossom to color in the face of the baby. I punched it out using the medium oval and then punched out a scallop oval in pretty in pink. I added the tiny pink knot to finish it off.

My good friend just had a baby and that was another inspiration for me to make this card. She loves the pink and green together (although that was the color combo she used for her first baby... I don't know if baby #2 got a new color combo...) If she is following my blog, she will see the card before she gets it, but since she has a two year old and a new born, I am banking on her being just a bit too preoccupied right now. Either way, the card was made with love for her newest member of the family in mind.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I am so excited!!!! I have just received my first recognition on a challenge I did!!!! How exciting is that??? I posted this past week on the Create with Connie and Mary challenge, and I made it into their top 3 of the week!!! I am just so excited about that. I'd like to thank all the fans who support me, and of course all the talented people who inspire me. Ha! Just kidding. It really does make me feel good. Thanks for the recognition Connie and Mary. You made this girl very happy!

Okay... so before I read that good news, I was creating with my friend Susan. I made this card. I totally cased it from a blog I stumbled upon (I HAVE to get better about crediting my sources. I stress that to my students! I am sorry I didn't, but you had a blog with the word "monkey" in the title, well, two blogs really that were connected to each other and a personal story about a tragic loss... if you read this and know it's you, let me know so I can give you credit...) I love this card. The original was done in certainly celery (which I also love, but I am running low on... I need to order...), but I used Wild Wasabi, my most-favorite-in-color-that-I-didn't-know-how-much-I-loved-until-I-couldn't-get-anymore color. Seriously. I was "Oh, so happy" they brought this color back! That's wild wasabi, rose red and whisper white... for everything. This is a square card (that I don't have an envelope for... did I mention I need to order?) The butterflies on the front are made using the embosslet, and they are popped up. And the inside is stamped, too...

(Sorry this picture is so blurry... weird, huh? I just took both pictures. Why's one so blurry? Anyway, you get the idea...)

It isn't for a challenge (and judging from my other posts that means no one will probably see it...), but that's okay because I really, really like it!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

While I was working on my (eh-hem) second card for this week's challenge on Stamping 411, I got the idea for this one and despite the fact that I will be VERY tired tomorrow, I just had to put this card together. This set (Bitty Birthday) was sitting in front of me for the last few weeks. I got it free during the sale-a-brations time, and I haven't really used it (I think I used the cake once). So while I was trying to decide which shape to put my trees in (see previous post), I thought that these shapes really lent themselves to the circle, square, and tag punches. That's when I decided to mix it up a bit and put three shapes on the same card.... CRAZY, I know! I am living on the edge here people... WATCH OUT! I pulled out another sale-a-brations goodie from a few years ago (have I mentioned how much I LOVE free stuff?), the dsp, and matched it with certainly celery, so saffron, and bashful blue. I used those same colors to color in each picture. I used the blue behind each of the pieces. I finished it off by adding two Sahara sand colored brads and popping up the message.

This is something more along the lines of what I was thinking when I first saw Stamping 411's weekly challenge. I wanted to use my trendy trees set, a set I fell in love with immediately. I wasn't sure about what I wanted to do with it, but then my friend was recognized for a pretty big honor in his field (national recognition, one of 12 people... pretty cool), and I wanted to send him a congratulations card. That's when the ideas really started flowing. I made the tree in the center bigger and the ink darker than the other trees (for those, I stamped off once before stamping them on the whisper white). Inside, I will be writing how he is a "stand out" in his field. The paper colors are bashful blue, pumpkin pie, and old olive. The designer series paper is a retired one (the set that had the cherries and the apples in it). The sentiment comes from perfect punches in the new catalog.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

I stumbled upon the Create with Connie and Mary blog early in my blogging. I saved the page on my phone and check in on their challenges. This is my first time trying one. This week, they had an "inspiration challenge." This beautiful cake...

In addition to that, Stamping 411, my first blog challenge spot, has a sweet sketch challenge, too. So I used the inspiration challenge and started creating. Somewhere in the process, I decided to get the stamping 411 challenge in there, too. It wasn't what I was originally thinking of doing, but I wanted to get at least one submission into them...

This card with one daisy came first... cake inspired for sure! I used Brocade Blue (retired, I know) and Daffodil Delight with whisper white flowers.

Then using the same colors, I added in the three flowers,

popped up, of course, and a sentiment in order tomeet the requirements of the Stamping 411 challenge...

I used the sentiment from the hope happens set... I am sending it to a family friend who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. If you are a prayer, I'd appreciate prayers for Florence.